


Young Marvel

by The_fake_KamalaKhan



Series: Earth-976 [1]
Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alien Culture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Carol Danvers is Ms. Marvel, Culture Shock, Established Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau, Established Relationship, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual character development, F/F, Gen, Homesickness, Hurt/Comfort, Mari-Ell is Captain Marvel, Romantic Fluff, Teenage Carol Danvers, Teenage Drama, Teenage Maria Rambeau, Young Love, anger issues, for now, kree Carol danvers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29016954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_fake_KamalaKhan/pseuds/The_fake_KamalaKhan
Summary: Four years ago, a Kree youth named Car-Ell travelled to Earth with her family to live a more peaceful life. While her mother is loved by the world as the superheroine- Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers struggles to adapt to her new life as a normal human girl and mourns the old life she left behind. But when her people's ancient enemies reveal themselves, Carol must step up, fight, and discover who she really is inside. And find out if she has what it takes to become the next great hero.
Relationships: Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau
Series: Earth-976 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2128740
Comments: 7
Kudos: 3





	Young Marvel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah! After ten thousand years, I'm free! It's time to conquer the Earth... with another pilot to a probably overly ambitious fic series.
> 
> Here's hoping this one will last longer than all my previous efforts. For those of you with enough patience to stick around even after all my past failures, I appreciate you so much. And for those of you just watching now, I hope this first chapter will capture your attention.
> 
> Please read and enjoy. Thank you.

**Baton Rouge, Louisiana**

**1989**

After the Second World War ushered in the Age of Heroes, things that would normally be restricted to the confines of fiction, such as a giant robot attempting to destroy a major American city, are now seen as a part of daily life, or at least a regular fixture in the news cycle. On an unrelated note, a giant robot is currently stomping towards the capital city of Louisiana with a news crew documenting the event from a minimum safe distance.

This fifty story, metal monster was created and armed by (insert name of evil terrorist organization here) with enough ordinance to level an entire city five times over. Its shell is made of a near invulnerable metal called Depleted Promethium, which protects it from anything that even the military can throw at it short of a nuke. Unfortunately for it, the robot isn't facing the military today.

As the robot made its slow march towards Baton Rouge, four fliers descended from the skies. One of them was a jet plane, but not any plane used by the military. It's a state-of-the-art fighter jet painted black and oddly shaped like a bat. Two of the other fliers are a brightly dressed, man and woman duo with bird shaped helmets and a pair of magnificent feathered wings on each of their backs. The last flier is a black man in a tight, green and black outfit, who is flying under the power of the green ring on his finger.

Despite their rather goofy appearances, these four fliers are among the greatest heroes of the twentieth century. The man piloting the jet is Batman, Gotham City's resident billionaire vigilante. The winged duo are Hawkman and Hawkwoman, a husband and wife warrior pair from the planet Thanagar. And the man in green is John Stewart, a member of the intergalactic Green Lantern Corps.

From within the cockpit of the Batplane, Batman called to his teammates through their communicators. "We need to divide its attention. Slow him down. Find an opening. Hawks, hang back on reserve. Lantern and I will try to flank it."

The Hawks nodded as they slowed down and let themselves trail behind their teammates.

Batman then told Green Lantern, "I'll approach it from the right. You go left. Let's come in hard."

"On it," Green Lantern agreed as he flew over to the robot's left flank and peppering its metal shell with rocket constructs fired from his ring. At the same time, the Batplane flew over to the right and fired a barrage of armor-piercing rounds. However, the robot's Promethium armor held without much of a scratch, and it slowed down to retaliate by launching homing missiles at its two enemies.

"Evasive maneuvers!", Batman yelled as he flew the Batplane up and began zipping around to avoid getting hit by the missiles. Green Lantern, on the other hand, flew down and shot straight. As he accelerated, John Stewart launched a spread of green flares to divert his homing rockets and letting them explode harmlessly.

The Batplane was flying near the giant robot's face, drawing its attention directly, as it danced around the missiles chasing it. After gaining a good amount of space away from the missiles, the Batplane suddenly stopped its trajectory and used its advanced propulsion system to flip over at a near-instant before racing headlong towards the missiles. Before the missiles could hit it, however, the Batplane fired at the missiles, causing them to explode prematurely. Once the missiles are gone, the Batplane raced through the smoke cloud, and when it emerged on the other side, it was ready to collide with the robot's face with the robot itself arming its anti-air turrets on its shoulders to shoot down the Batman.

"Lantern! String it up! Now!", Batman yelled as he directed the Batplane upward to avoid the robot.

This distraction allowed Green Lantern, who was flying close to the ground at the time, to conjure a pair of handcuffs around the robot's legs to interrupt its gait and force it to topple into the ground.

"Hawks! Go for the neck!", Batman commanded.

Out of the rising sun, Hawkman and Hawkwoman flew down with their maces out. While Promethium armor is impervious to most forms of weaponry, the Hawks' maces are made of the equally tough Nth metal. The descended on opposite sides of the robot's neck, one of its weak spots, and smashed their weapons down with a mighty roar. The maces smashed through the connective cables and plates. They cut through a swath of the neck, effectively decapitating the robot.

Once the head was rolling, the rest of the body followed, creating fifty story roadblock on top of the highway. After the robot's lights died, the allied heroes hovered over the metal corpse.

"Good work everybody," Batman spoke appreciatively, "I'm signaling Damage Control to clean this up. Let's..."

However, Batman was interrupted when the plates on the robot's back opened up suddenly to reveal a missile platform. Unfortunately for our heroes and the city of Baton Rouge, this missile happened to be of the nuclear variety. The failsafe measures in the defunct robot launched the missile, and it was racing headlong into the city with the implacable fury of a vengeful god.

Horrified, Batman called out, "Lantern! You're the fastest! Go!"

"On it!", Green Lantern said before shooting out towards the missile at top speed. The Green Lantern burned through all the energy he could muster from his ring, but no matter how fast he flew, the missile was ahead of him by a distressing margin. "Damn it, Batman! I can't reach it!"

"Can you slow it down?", he asked.

Green Lantern shook his head. "The bastards painted the damn thing yellow! My ring has no effect on it! Shit! The Guardians really dropped the ball on that little design flaw! God... I... I can't reach it!"

"Then allow me!", a confident female voice boomed as a figure draped in golden light raced past an astonished Green Lantern. The mysterious female flier easily caught up with the nuclear missile, and with her two super strong arms, the heroine grabbed the missile's belly and shot it and herself straight into the stratosphere. Green Lantern stopped in his tracks and floated above the city limits as he looked up and watched a bright plume of nuclear fire explode harmlessly from space. This long pause after the initial boom was very distressing.

But then the golden woman descended from the skies and flew past the Green Lantern. With a sigh of relief, Green Lantern followed the flying woman back to the robot corpse. Joined by his comrades on solid ground, the heroes watched the woman land in front of them.

She was a short, but muscular white woman wearing a form-fitting, full body red and blue uniform. Over her upper torso was a golden stripe that lead to the golden Kree star displayed prominently in her chest, and covering her face was a blue cowl that was cut off to show her short, blonde hair.

Batman got out of his plane. As he stepped down onto the ruined road, the dark vigilante looked at the woman and asked, "I thought you had to escort some dignitaries in Qurac."

"The peace conference got postponed. Apparently, half the suits came down with a serious case of food poisoning. The explosive kind. Hehe," she remarked with a charming cockiness, "Barbara told about this little skirmish, so I told myself, 'Might as well lend a hand. Not like I have anything better to do today.' Lucky you. Looks like you needed the extra help, Bats."

"We had it handled," Batman said annoyed.

"Oh really? So what was your plan in stopping 'Hiroshima 2' if I hadn't come along, hm?", she snarked, "Don't think I hadn't noticed you sending our resident Lantern after the _yellow_ missile."

Green Lantern nudged Batman in the shoulder. "She's got a point."

"Major tactical error," Hawkman commented.

As Batman rolled his eyes, the news crew rushed over to the heroes.

"Here comes our adoring public," Hawkwoman remarked.

"Mwah!", the blonde woman kissed her hands out like a proper showman before giving the camera graceful curtsey.

The reporter stood in front of the camera and said...

* * *

**Fawcett City,** **Maine**

_"As you just_ _saw, the giant robot attempting to destroy Baton Rouge has just been defeated by none other than the Justice League of America! On a personal note, as_ _a Baton native, this reporter would like to thank the League's very own Captain Marvel in her role in averting the nuclear strike that nearly destroyed_ _my city."_

As this live news broadcast played out on the TV, a teenage couple sat down on a table on the far corner of the diner. The black girl of the two was watching those events with wonder and awe.

This girl, Maria Rambeau, spoke to her date, whose hand she was holding underneath the table to avoid unwanted attention, "Wow... they're really incredible, are they?"

Said date, a blonde girl named Carol Danvers, was less enthused. She scoffed. "If you say so."

Maria didn't seem to noticed Carol's indifference as she excitedly continued, "The JLA are so amazing. They save the world almost every day, and they look so damn good while doing it!"

"If you consider wearing gaudy spandex as 'looking good'," Carol said under her breath.

"I still can't believe your mom is _the_ Captain Marvel. She's, like, my favorite superhero ever!", Maria chirped, "The next time we see her, do you think she could give us a tour of the Hall of Justice? That could be our anniversary!"

Carol didn't answer. She simply looked at the TV screen, specifically at her mom as she gave an interview, with disdain.

It was then that Maria noticed that her girlfriend's mood worsened since that news story came up. Feeling bad, she cleared her throat and changed the subject. "Um... darling. Should we have dessert, or do you just wanna call it a day?"

Carol turned away from the TV. She softened her harsh expression as she looked at Maria and said, "No... no. Um, how about an apple pie?"

"I thought you hate apple pie?"

"You don't," Carol murmured softly. This earned her a little smile from Maria.

* * *

After their date, Carol and Maria made their way back to their apartment complex. Their hands brushed closely together, but the sheer volume of people walking around them stopped the two girls from holding hands.

Maria spoke, "I knew you and your family for four years, and I can't believe that your mom was Captain Marvel for all that time and I didn't know until now! My next-door neighbor is a superhero! So cool!"

"Yeah... cool," Carol murmured trying to hide her irritation.

Maria winced and scolded herself internally. "Wow... I must really sound like a broken record right now, huh?"

Carol doesn't answer. She was too busy focusing on the ground to avoid looking at the TVs behind a store window, which so happened to be airing different news outlets that were all honoring Captain Marvel and her team.

"I'm sorry. This must be very awkward for you. Here I am geeking out over your mom and forgetting you're not on good terms with her for... whatever reason. I'll try not to bring her up again. Promise."

Carol sighed. "You don't have to change yourself on my account, Maria. Like whatever superhero you want."

Maria perked up as she said, "Good, because I just read the first issue of the new Captain Marvel solo book, and I really wanna share my thoughts with you!"

"Sure. As long as I get to burn it afterwards."

"Is that a joke?", Maria asked in confusion.

Carol looked her in the eye and smiled. "Obviously."

The two girls shared a good laugh over this.

"I didn't think you had it in you, Carol."

"You appreciate jokes. I don't see much value in them personally, but that's no reason why I shouldn't indulge my girlfriend every now and again."

"You're a real sweetie, Danvers," Maria said with a soft shoulder bump, "So... Captain Marvel is an alien. A... um, Cray?"

"Kree."

"Yes, Kree. So if she's an alien, that means you're an alien too, right?"

"That's generally how species work," Carol wryly commented.

"My point is, your mom has these awesome alien powers. Flight, super strength, laser hands. So... does that mean you have powers too?"

"Mother's powers are actually atypical for our race," Carol explained, "She gained them through a military experiment back in our home planet. But yes. I did inherit my mother's powers."

"Seriously?!", Maria said with starstruck eyes, "So you and your brother..."

Carol shook her head. "My brother was born before mother went through that experiment. He's just a normal Kree."

"Oh, but still," Maria shuddered giddily, "My girlfriend has superpowers! You can fly! I didn't think you could be more amazing!"

Carol blushed. "Thanks..."

"You could be the next big superhero, Carol!", Maria said, "For real, you're the most badass person I ever met, and that's before I knew you had powers. How come your mom's not letting you go on missions with her as her sidekick or something?"

Carol's good mood once again soured. "That's because I want nothing to do with her or her precious career."

Maria could sense the raw antagonism radiating out of her girlfriend. "Wow... I didn't know you actually hate her that much. Don't take this the wrong way, but your mom always seemed like a decent human bei... well, person to me. What happened between you two?"

Carol looked away and said, "That's... I don't wanna talk about it."

* * *

Inside the Danvers family apartment, a now more noticeably unhappy Carol made her way inside with her own key. Closing the door behind her, Carol's personal space was suddenly invaded by her overly excited older brother.

"Car-Ell! You won't believe what happened to me today!"

Carol scoffed as she began to walk away from her brother. "Does it involve something inane and useless like everything else in this backwater planet?"

Joel Danvers took his sister's insult in stride as he tailed her and said, "Oh, this is far from useless, my dear sister. You know that environmentalist group that I hang out with after school?"

"Did you all finally get arrested? I can finally have a break from your insipid yapping?"

"The very opposite! Our petition to save Roy Thomas Woods pulled through! We stopped Roxxon from clearing the forest for another shopping mall! And we did it without violence, _and_ none of us got shot for sedition! Isn't that amazing!"

Carol rolled her eyes. "So you saved a bunch of trees. I'm sure the lower lifeforms who live there are building a statue in your honor, Jo-Ell."

"Come on, Car," Jo-Ell said with his hands on his hips, "You have to at least admit that living in this planet has its perks. Something like this would never happen back home. We have more freedom to change things for the better here. Isn't that worth admiring?"

"Freedom...", Carol repeated with a scoff, "And what do these humans do with their freedom? They use it to divide themselves into tribes and factions. To persecute each other. Threaten their only homeworld with pollution and weapons of mass destruction. At least in the empire there was order. And an actual purpose to it all."

"You're gonna have to let go of that mindset eventually, Car," Jo-Ell tiredly said, "You'll only make yourself miserable if you don't get over it."

"Don't count on it," Carol said out of spite as she opened the door to her room.

Before Carol could enter her room, Jo-Ell pointed out, "If you are such a patriot, Car, then why are you dating Maria? You know the Supreme Intelligence's stance on _that_ particular issue."

This was enough to give Carol pause for a moment. She briefly looked back at her brother with a silent glare before entering her room and locking the door. Once inside, Carol did what all angsty teenagers do in this time period. She stomped over to her bed and flopped facedown like a fish.

She also screamed into her pillow.

Once Carol vented her anger into her pillow, she weakly flipped over to her back and stared at her ceiling with dead, immensely dissatisfied eyes. For the most, Carol's room is sterile and ordered like military barracks, but there was one noticeable detail.

Turning her head over to her right, Carol stared at the only poster plastered to her wall. It was a bright, propaganda piece depicting a Kree woman wearing a green and black, full-body suit with a striped, silver star emblem over her chest and a matching, cowled helmet that folded her long, blonde hair into a mohawk. The woman stood tall and stoicly with her fists on her hips. In big, shiny letters, the poster said (translated from standard Kree script), "Become the best version of yourself! Apply for Starforce today!"

Believe it or not, the stoic, dead-faced Kree woman was none other than a younger Captain Marvel. But back then, she was known simply as Mari-Ell, commander of the Kree Empire's elite Starforce unit.

Back then, Car-Ell thought the world of her mother. She was the empire's favorite daughter. The Supreme Intelligence's most powerful weapon. For decades, Mari-Ell led the Starforce valiantly in defense of her fellow Kree, and her very presence struck fear into the hearts of their enemies. Mari-Ell was what every Kree child aspired to be growing up. The perfect soldier.

Carol sighed wistfully as she thought to herself, "You were a hero, mother. My hero... why would you give all of that up to play dress-up here? When did you become so selfish?"

* * *

**The Next Day**

Time for school. Carol was always more grumpy than usual on the weekdays. It's not that she hated school. She just hated human school.

Back in Hala, Car-Ell was the most eager student among her peers. Kree society made sure to indoctrinate their youth to be loyal and disciplined students in service of the state, but Car-Ell took it one step further. She enjoyed her time in primary school and later the military academy. There was so much she wanted to learn. Politics, philosophy, tactics, science. She'd spend every waking moment in her books and signing up for any extracurricular activity she could find. She wanted to learn, and it was all to become a better servant to the Supreme Intelligence.

But Earth school...

The content was mundane at best. Kree society was centuries ahead of Earth in almost any measurable standard, and Carol is frustrated by the seemingly slow pace of the classes.

Human social studies was baffling, but not in a way that made Carol want to understand it. Earth politics and economy were pitiable. Carol didn't understand why the humans around her rejected stronger forms of government in favor of inefficient democracy. And learning human history and culture didn't inspire much confidence that they could ever approach the Kree standard.

And finally, Carol just didn't see a point to it all. In the Kree Empire, each student was assigned life path early on. The purpose of school was to better direct them towards those paths. But on Earth, no one is destined for anything. They're not molded into what society needs, but instead the adults either encourage them to chase after their useless dreams or settle into a life of wage-paid mediocrity.

Carol wasn't fond of most of her peers either. She found them to be soft and weak. Undisciplined and spoiled. They often whined and complained about seemingly every little thing. And they are too caught up in their ego to think about the greater good or pretty much any purpose beyond their own reputation or gratification.

And the worst part was that Carol had to keep these feelings bottled up. After knocking out a cheerleader during her second day at school, her mother made her swear to try to fit in and get along with the other teens. Carol couldn't do that, so she just faded into the background to be ignored. And this isolation made Carol grow to hate everything and everyone around her.

Well, everyone except Maria Rambeau, that is.

After struggling to keep herself awake during US government class, Carol entered the cafeteria for lunch, where she stuffed her tray with a veritable feast- an extra helping of nachos, beans, rice, a brownie, chips, a couple apples, and a box of milk to round things out. She walked over to her usual table, where she saw Maria as well.

The girl greeted Carol with a warm smile, and despite great effort, the Kree girl couldn't help but blush. They've only just now started dating (in secret of course), but they've been friends for years and pined for each other for almost as long. Frankly, Maria was the one thing that made life on this planet bearable.

Carol sat right next to Maria and instinctively slipped her hand onto hers under the table.

As Carol started to eat with her free hand, Maria said, "I got you something."

Carol looked at Maria weirdly (while still shoving food into her mouth, of course) as she brought something out of her bag. She presented Carol a box wrapped in red paper. A gift.

"A gift?", Carol asked confused, "What brought this on?"

"I felt bad about ruining our date with all my superhero talk, so I talked with my friend, Adam, and he helped me put this together," Maria looked at her girlfriend with anticipation, "Come on. Open it!"

"If you say so," Carol shrugged. She undid the wrapper and opened the box to reveal a silver locket. Carol hid her ennui with unreadable stoicism as she muttered, "You shouldn't have."

Maria shook her girlfriend's shoulder like a child waking their parent up for Christmas morning. "Just open it!"

"Alright. Alright," Carol said as she flipped open the locket. She expected to find something overly sentimental. A photo of themselves in summer camp, where they first truly met. Perhaps a commemorative photo that they took of themselves during their first date. Carol certainly didn't see this coming. "The Kree flag?"

There was no mistaking it. It was the official logo of the Kree Empire imprinted inside this human trinket. The silver Kree star and side stripes, the horizontal hemispheres of green and black. It was the Kree flag she remembered from her past, perfectly replicated as if taken from Hala itself.

"You sounded really homesick during our date, so I got my grandma's old locket and put this in. That way, you'll always have a little piece of home with you wherever you go."

"But how did you..."

"Remember that Kree flag you gave me on my birthday?"

"Sorry...", Carol grimaced at the memory.

It was the first birthday that Carol was invited to. Even back then, she felt something for Maria. Enough to actually put in the effort to actually give her then new friend a gift. Something from the heart. So she sowed a Kree flag from scratch as a secret way for Carol to honor Maria as an honorary comrade. Carol thought that Maria would hang it on her wall as an honored decoration. Much to her embarrassment, however, Maria thought that it was just some weird blanket at the time.

Maria continued, "Well, I showed Adam the flag, and he drew it for me. Took nearly the entire night, but I hope it was worth it."

"It is," Carol said smiling, "I love it."

It took everything for Maria to not just kiss this beautiful girl in front of all these witnesses. Instead, she just squeezed Carol's hand and said, "I'm glad."

"Rambeau," a third girl said coldly. The two looked behind to see one of the school's blonde, popular girls and her mean looking posse.

With an incoming dread, Maria asked, "Karla? What are you..."

"What's this about you talking to my boyfriend behind my back?", Karla Sofenko said in a thinly veiled accusatory tone.

"Adam was just doing me a favor. No big deal," Maria replied meekly.

" _I_ decide what's a big deal or not," Karla said coming up to Maria's face, "I don't want you to come near him ever again. Got it?"

"I just..."

"Got it?", Karla repeated, "Because if me or my girls ever see your slutty fingers near him again, I'll..."

"Leave her alone," Carol growled as she stood up between Karla and her girlfriend.

"Oh, the butch psycho is puffing up her chest again," Karla said dismissively.

"I'll do more than that if you don't back off. Now," Carol threatened.

"Or what? You gonna beat the piss out of me?"

"You know I would," Carol said standing her ground, "If you call her that again..."

"I know. Actually, I almost want you to take your shot at me in front of everyone here," Karla said gesturing to the entire cafeteria with everyone staring at this standoff. She then pointed to her two cronies, "Me and my friends will make sure your crazy butt gets expelled by the end of the day. So come on, try it."

Carol scowled and was close to popping a vein, she was so mad. Thankfully, no one noticed that her clenched fists were glowing gold with photonic energy. No one that is, except Maria.

Maria nervously whispered to her girlfriend, "Carol. Don't get in trouble over me. So please... simmer down? Please?"

Maria subtly gestured to Carol's fists. Thankfully, Carol caught her girlfriend's meaning. With heavy reluctance, Carol unformed her fists and the lights in her hands died down. She backed off from her confrontational stance, which pleased Karla immensely.

"That's what I thought," Karla then looked at Maria again, "Remember what I said. Skank."

"Karla...", Carol growled.

"Hm?"

SMACK!

* * *

**Later**

"Come on, Dudley," Captain Marvel, now in her civilian guise of Marie Danvers, pleaded to the principal in his office, "Is that really necessary?"

Mr. Dudley shook his head with a heavy sigh. "Carol put Ms. Sofenko into the hospital. She's in a coma, for Christ's sake! What did you expect me to do, Marie?"

"I know, but... suspension for the rest of the school year?"

"Marie, her parents wanted me to expel her. We're lucky I managed to convince the board to give us this much. I had to bribe the Sofenkos myself to not press charges against Carol. And it's not like this was her first incident."

"It was only one other time..."

"Damn it, Marie! This isn't baseball!", Mr. Dudley snapped, "Carol put one of my students into a coma! The captain of our volleyball team, no less! I can't exactly let her off with a slap on the wrist! Mouthing off to the teachers and scaring the local bullies is one thing. Her using her super strength to hospitalize one of our best and brightest is another matter entirely. I'm sorry, Marie, but unless Carol can get her act together, I don't see much of a future for her in this school."

* * *

In the school's parking lot, Carol waited inside her mom's car. She brooded in the passenger seat as Marie entered into the driver's seat.

Marie shot her daughter a disapproving glare as she said in her native Kree, (What the hell were you thinking, Car-Ell?!)

(She had it coming), Carol coldly replied.

(You could've killed her!)

(I held back.)

(You could have killed her.)

(Sofenko should consider herself fortunate), Carol retorted, (I've killed people for less.)

Marie took a deep breath and nursed an incoming headache. (You don't think I know that? You can't just hospitalize people without consequence! We are not in the empire, and you're not a soldier anymore, Car-Ell!)

(Don't remind me!), Carol snapped, (Every day I spend in this miserable backwater of a planet is more than enough!)

An tense silence ensued.

(I wanted a better life for us, Car-Ell.), Marie said somberly.

(You wanted a better life for yourself!), Carol shouted in an accusatory tone, (You get to go out and play hero for the primitives, while I wile away the days in obscurity in that pathetic excuse for a school!)

(Is that why you almost killed someone?), Marie said frustrated, (You're acting out of spite? Because I risked my life trying to get you and your brother out of the empire?)

(I punched that bitch, because she called Maria a skank.), Carol spat, (But now that you mentioned it, yes, I'm mad about that too. Didn't you ever stop to consider that maybe I loved my old life? I wanted to dedicate my life to our people. I had a career! And in one fell swoop, _you_ decided that you were too good for the empire! _You_ let your own conscience ruin not only your career, but also _my_ future! Now I can never go back home again, and it's all your fault!)

Carol's eyes were flush with angry tears.

(Car-Ell...), Maria spoke softly. However, Carol, filled with regret and anger, jumped out of the car and began running off the parking lot. (Car-Ell!)

Marie got out and tried to run after her. However, Carol disappeared before Marie could give a proper chase. Starforce trained her too well, it seems.

Marie sighed and stared at the ground somberly. In her heart, she knew she made the right choice in leaving the Kree Empire. She could only hope that Carol could see that too one of these days.

But that doesn't make this any less painful.

* * *

**The Next Day**

Carol and Maria found themselves in the same diner as before. This time, however, it was more like a pity date given everything that happened.

Maria finished her food a while ago, but Carol kept ordering more. If she weren't an alien, she'd probably start to grow some fat. It's a good thing that Carol, with her more generous allowance, was the one who will be paying for all this. Stress eating is expensive, after all.

Still, that didn't make this situation any less awkward for Maria.

She finally gathered the courage to say, "I'm sorry."

Carol swallowed and put down her chicken leg. She looked at Maria and asked, "For what?"

"For getting you suspended. And for getting you in trouble with your mom..."

"It wasn't your fault."

"Karla went after me, because I forgot who her boyfriend was," Maria said somberly, "If I'd been more careful, maybe..."

"Maria," Carol interrupted firmly as she got her girlfriend's attention by holding her hands, "Karla shouldn't have ever gone after you in the first place. Not over something so stupid. So don't apologize. I insist."

Maria sighed. "I just hate seeing you like this."

"Me too," Carol said returning to her plate of chicken.

"I must come across as a whiner, huh?", Maria spoke wistfully, "If there are more like you on your world, then you're settling big time. I bet your old girlfriends were less annoying than I am."

Carol paused for a moment. "Actually, I... I'm not allowed to... homosexuality is illegal back home," she reluctantly admitted.

"Oh," Maria said feeling more embarrassed, "I guess now I know why you left."

Carol sighed. "Leaving was mother's choice, not mine."

Maria eyed Carol curiously and said, "And you wouldn't have left otherwise?"

Carol took a deep breath and answered, "No."

"Then why did you?"

"Kree honor. It's...", Carol stumbled, "My mom is the head of my family, so I have to abide by anything she decides. Anything..."

"And she forced you to leave?"

Carol sighed. "She gave me a choice, but my culture compelled to be a good daughter, and she knew that. So... I left with her. Now I wish I didn't."

"I'm sorry," Maria spoke with nothing but sympathy in her voice.

"There's no changing it now. I guess I have to make peace with this... life," Carol said resigned, "But I admit, there's one good thing to come out of this. I got to meet you."

Maria blushed as Carol waved her hand over her hair. "Meeting you was a highlight for me too," she said back.

Carol smiled back. What a nice and tender moment. Too bad it gets immediately interrupted by a man wearing a red balaclava.

"Everyone get down! Unless you want a bullet to the brain!", he shouted.

The humans reacted predictably with fear. They all laid down flat on the floor like he said, even Maria. However, Carol was more indifferent. She was more concerned with the remaining chicken on her plate to care about a common criminal.

The robber turned to the cash register and the poor cashier who happened to be manning it at the time.

Handing him a burlap sack, the robber told him, "Money in there. Now."

Under duress, the cashier opened up the register and began dumping the cash in the bag. While the cashier was doing that, the robber took another look around the restaurant, and sure enough, he noticed that Carol wasn't laying down with the rest of the hostages.

Annoyed, the robber walked over to Carol and waved his gun at her. "Sit your ass down, kid. Now."

Carol swallowed. "I am," she said pointing to the chair she is sitting on, "Now go away. I'm not done yet."

The robber was taken aback by this teenager's boldness and general 'I don't care' attitude. Enraged, the robber shoved Carol's plate off the table while she was washing her chicken down with lemonade.

The robber pointed the gun at Carol's head and said, "Don't be smart with me, little girl! Get down on the ground! Now!"

Carol barely registered the man's words as she stared at the perfectly good chicken the man had just shoved into the floor. That got to Carol more than anything.

"I was going to eat that...", Carol said in a low growl.

"Final warning. Get down on the ground, or I'm gonna put a bullet in your..."

The robber was interrupted when Carol grabbed the barrel of his pistol, which crumpled into her hand like paper. He jumped back in shock. Carol threw away the ruined gun like garbage as she slowly started walking towards the man with golden light flaring in her eyes.

The man pissed himself in fear of the superpowered teenager as he tripped and fell on his ass. Crawling away, he pleaded, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please! Don't hurt me!"

"Too late," Carol said as she raised her fist, which glowed with photonic energy.

As the rest of the bystanders watched in a mixture of both amazement and mind-boggling confusion at this turn of events, Maria got up and ran to Carol.

She whispered to her enraged girlfriend, "Carol... don't you think you got into enough trouble this week? Come on, take a breath with me."

Carol looked at Maria, and she willed her lights to die down. The Kree girl followed Maria's lead as she took a couple deep breaths with her. Once her fire has been sufficiently calmed, Carol shot the terrified robber a glare before turning back to Maria. "I'll settle our bill."

Maria nodded in agreement. "I think that's best."

Carol grabbed the receipt and walked over to the cash register. She handed her debit card to the cashier and said, "Here."

Snapping back into reality, the cashier shakily took the card and said, "Oh, um, thanks."

Just as the cashier swiped the card, however...

CRASH!

A loud, almost deafening noise outside shook the poor sods inside the restaurant. Annoyed, Carol stomped over to the window shouting, "What is it now?!"

Through the glass, Carol saw that a van had just crashed into a nearby lamppost. Carol was ready to dismiss this incident as reckless driving until the occupants of the smoking vehicle got out. They were a group of four, but they were clearly not Fawcett City natives. These people had green, scaly skin, pointed ears, and ridged chins. As this was the Age of Heroes, most people's first instinct was to see these strange beings as some sort of lizard people- weird mutations of science or perhaps a secretive underground race straight out of the Hollow Earth theory.

However, Carol knew better. After all, these people belonged to her race's sworn enemy.

With an ingrained hatred she hadn't experienced in years, Carol growled under her breath, "Skrulls..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we leave, let me clarify a few things.
> 
> While this story will be a loose adaptation of the Captain Marvel movie, key events will obviously have to be changed. For one, the events of this story takes place in 1989 rather than 1995. With Carol and Maria being teenagers, I picked the earlier date to make sure that Monica has enough time to be born and be at least in her twenties by modern times.
> 
> The Skrulls of this story will be different than in the movie. For one thing, they'll have different motivations- won't explain more than that for now due to spoilers. While Talos is still involved, he and his compatriots will be Super Skrulls in this. However, to make sure that they don't become too overpowered for our young heroes, each person in this team will only get one power. That includes Talos himself. I also have an in-universe explanation for this too. The Super Skrull program has only just got off the ground in this era, so the technology isn't as advanced. As a result, the Skrulls can only genetically engineer one power per Skrull at this time.
> 
> And obviously, Carol will have an almost entirely different personality in this AU, mostly due to her changed background. She's not as sarcastic or as rebellious in this story, because unlike Vers, Car-Ell is pure-blooded Kree and was raised in the Kree system her whole life (and that includes military service as the Kree in this universe do employ child soldiers). While she is a good person deep down, Carol still holds the fascistic ideology and prejudices that most of her people have. Her journey in this story is to reject that and understand why her mother defected. If you're not fond of this version of Carol, don't worry. She becomes more like her classic self when she reaches adulthood. And as her mom is Captain Marvel at this time, Carol will become Ms. Marvel now and take her mother's title later. She won't wear that skimpy outfit though. This added phase in her life is really just something for Kamala Khan later down the line.
> 
> Also, Carol will be joined by a Team of young heroes in this story. In fact, they'll show up next chapter to fight the Skrulls. Their primary motivation is to prove themselves to their mentors in the Justice League, and Carol will initially join them for purely selfish reasons. They'll help Carol along in this story in more ways than one. There will be three of them, and I know who two of them will be for sure- a Robin and a Green Lantern. However, I'm struggling to decide who will be the third. Hopefully, I'll resolve it on my own soon, but I wouldn't be opposed to suggestions.
> 
> Also-also, there are more members of the Justice League than the ones I shown in this chapter. There are over a dozen Leaguers at this time, and they are often out doing as much good as they can. I imagine that the League split themselves into small, dynamic teams on a daily basis that do their own thing and only really come together to fight the big threats. For this story though, we'll probably just see the ones I introduced though that might change should the story find the need to.
> 
> Also-also-also, the Guardians do fix the yellow weakness eventually. I just always found that piece of comic book history to be amusing, and I wanted that to be a fixture in this era for the joke material if nothing else.
> 
> And let me say this now if this wasn't obvious. I don't consider this a fix-it fic. I like the Captain Marvel movie just fine. In fact, it's my favorite of the MCU's origin movies, tied only with the Captain America movie. I just wanted put a different spin in the story that includes DC heroes and elements of "The Life of Captain Marvel" (the one with Carol and her mom) as it is my favorite comic.
> 
> That's about it for now. Thanks for the read and have a nice day!


End file.
